Music Review: Meryl Streep Delivers… Again! This Time on ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING Singing LOOK FOR THE LIGHT

Heigh Ho, dear lovely rainbow tribe, welcome back to Bobby’s CD sandbox where we offer our broken-down breakdowns of new music releases. So, strap in and get ready, as Bobby goes on the record ABOUT the record.

This week’s single song single entry in the BobbyFiles comes from acting icon Meryl Streep. Down through the years of the first lady of … everything’s career, she has had occasion to bust out a song or two, and, so, the fact that she sings and sings beautifully should be a surprise to no one. After all, it has only been 46 years since her last Broadway musical HAPPY END, but merely a scant 17 since she belted out Jeanine Tesori tunes in MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. Yes, we all saw MAMMA MIA!, though none of us will admit it, so why has this tiny little lullaby, LOOK FOR THE LIGHT, created such a sensation on ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING? Well, if you watch the show, a part of why we have been captivated is the layers within layers within the story on the show, and the meta aspects of our greatest actress playing a down-on-her-luck actress just trying to catch the big break. Loretta Durkin is an actress who has never been seen until, finally, near the end of her game, a director, Martin Short’s Oliver Putnam, sees her and puts her in a play that is Broadway bound. NO SPOILERS, but let’s just say a shake-up (murder) happens and the play is now a musical called DEATH RATTLE and it is moving forward with the same cast who Did Not sing at their auditions.  In a desperate attempt to keep the show Broadway Bound, Oliver has a backers audition for the reluctant producers with only one song in his arsenal. Moments before the performance, he has given the song to Loretta, who, then, sings it OFF BOOK and puts the number over beautifully…
 

You see there why everyone is talking about the song and The Marvelous Mrs. Meryl. Her hushed, almost whispered, vocal production at the top of the song gives it a dreamy, plaintive quality that calls the listener forward toward her. Her gift here is her ability to give heart to the heartfelt, and to convey the longing, using only her voice. Joined by Ashley Park, they share and blend so beautifully. The poem that makes up the lyrics is fascinating in its construction and rhyming scheme. Tossing back and forth (like the sea) between short and long verse lines, sometimes with several lines between rhymes, and, at other times, in close rhyming couplets. There are also internal rhymes within lines like “I WILL weather each storm standing by TILL” (...safe you return from the night...) -- really clever stuff. Here, we have a nanny singing to her three infant charges that she will be their “Candle on The Water,” so to speak. It is similar in feel to STAY AWAKE or FEED THE BIRDS from MARY POPPINS, but there is a story, here, happening between this Nanny and the unseen triplets, as she sings to give courage and reassurance that they will be alright because she will see to it. The turning carousel Omp Pah Pah in a minor key gives it all a bit of an eerie quality. Combining with the poetry of the lyrics, one can see the lighthouse’s pulsing illumination through the dark from the shore. Lullabies are familiar in Broadway musicals and this song is a perfect Broadway lullaby.
 

So, back to the layers - The actress Meryl Streep is playing the actress Loretta Durkin who may be a suspect in the latest murder in the building, and who is playing the Nanny in the murder mystery musical DEATH RATTLE, where she is a suspect all over again. It’s a difficult proposition for an actor of any stripe to play an actor who is, in turn, giving a performance, good or bad, as the case may be. For this role, a first-rate performer is playing a third-rate one who is finding herself, finally, able to bat in the big leagues. In short - it is all our stories, as we play them out in our heads in our daily lives: “If only I had the chance to show what I can really do,” and Loretta does and she triumphs. Also, Sara Bareilles, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul have composed a beautifully haunting song that you just can’t get out of your head. Bobby has been humming this one since Episode 3 dropped on the HULU and it will be your earworm for a while too my dear ones, so Bobby awards La Meryl and LOOK FOR THE LIGHT

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